Late sowings in August ... beans ?

So Monty Don was sowing dwarf french beans on Friday. Right at the end of July.

My last potatoes came out of the garden plot at the weekend, so I figure a few days doesn't make much difference, and I had some spare "Cupidon" dwarf French bean seed left - why not try ?

It is terribly dry over here in the East side of the UK. So, to give them their best chance, and to get rid of something that had been kicking around for a bit, I dug a very shallow (4-6") trench and raked in a sack of well rotted manure. Then re-covered it with soil, made a furrow, watered it, sowed the beans, and covered it with the dry soil. Idea being the organic matter soaks up the water that heads down, and the "dust mulch" on top cuts the hydraulic coupling to the surface and so evaporation. Hopefully the beans will get a moist start at least. Let's see what happens !

That sounds like a good idea, especially the manure. Even in the west, where we have had a little more rain, conditions are still very dry. I'm nursing my French beans along with washing up water, and am getting quite a few beans from my four plants. The four runner beans plants I have are looking very sulky however. I've misted the flowers, but very few are actually forming beans. I grow French and runners together to be sure of a few beans of whatever variety - if the weather doesn't suit one sort, it will generally suit the other.

I've sown French beans in a big tub in the greenhouse at the end of August before now, but apart from tomatoes the greenhouse is currently occupied by a water melon plant (in the big tub!!) given to me by a friend in the spring. Lots of leaves but no discernible melons.

I find French beans quite hard work, as the plants get easily wind damaged here, so only really use them to plug the gap between the end of the sugar snap peas and the beginning of the climbing beans. I don't ever plants peas or beans straight into the soil - lost too much to mice, birds, slugs and snails over the years, so always start them in rootrainers now.

I've just cleared out broad bean plants from big greenhouse containers, so I'm going to try some spinach to make use of the rest of the season. It's a crop I haven't any space for in the raised beds.

I often don't start runners until part way through July and take a chance that we won't get early frost - it usually pays off. I have done turnips as a late crop before now
My outdoor French beans are only just coming to something now and some very sulky Mr Fearns have just reached the top of my bean wigwam.

Sulky is a very good description! One of my Mr Fearns has given up entirely and shed all its leaves, and the others do not look impressed either. But in between stupidly hot periods of weather we have had a fair few beans, so I'm not complaining. I'm trying to coax my runners though, spraying with water morning and evening, but so far most of the flowers are falling off and no beans are forming. But it's why I always grow both sorts, to have a chance of at least a few of one sort or the other.

I've grown 10 Mr F beans on 2 x 5 cane wigwams. One wigwam has plants reaching the top, the other, not even halfway up. Bizarre! Had a few beans from them, but my dwarf French beans are currently much more productive. Hoping that as they finish, the climbers will be more abundant. Nothing on the runner beans so far, though the plants are looking good.

This morning I've picked just shy of 1lb of French beans from the polytunnel. It's the first pick from the second batch of 5 plants so they should go on producing for some weeks yet. My 2 Mr Fearns in the tunnel have beans starting to form and the outside ones are finally looking more lively and have flowers. I had intended to sow some runners outside too but just didn't get round to it.